2024-04-10 04:44:15
The commander of the German Army Operations Command, Bernd Schott, warned of “increasing Russian military influence” in African countries, including Libya.
Schott said in a statement to the German News Agency that Russia’s original intention in this is to fill the gaps related to security policy in light of the current vacuum and is trying to turn the situation in its favor and ward off Western influence.
Schut added that after the military coups that West Africa witnessed in recent years, Russia gradually expanded its influence and replaced Western and European countries in the presence in the region.
Schott pointed out that the Russian presence “forms a land belt that can extend almost from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea,” he said.
According to Schott, Russia is militarily active in Burkina Faso and Mali, amid signs of the start of military cooperation in Niger, in addition to meetings taking place at the political level in Chad. Russian forces have also been active in Libya since 2016 in the form of a group called Wagner, which participated in the war on Tripoli with the forces. Haftar in 2019.
Schott attributed Moscow’s moves to the fact that international crisis management, national defense, and alliance defense are linked to each other, considering that dealing with the matter militarily represents a major challenge, not only for Germany, but for other Western alliances.
Source: German News Agency
2024-04-10 04:44:15